


accidental confessions

by fullsunlet



Series: Christmas Christmas Time is Here [5]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Humour, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:35:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22031149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullsunlet/pseuds/fullsunlet
Summary: Jaehyun thinks he’s going to lose his job when he accidentally tells the guy ordering a pizza over the phone, “I love you”, and he panics until the other says, “I love you too.”
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung
Series: Christmas Christmas Time is Here [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579702
Comments: 21
Kudos: 302





	accidental confessions

**Author's Note:**

> \- late late late because i have no time to write :x

There isn’t much Jaehyun can say about working at a pizza chain in a mall located in the city centre. It’s busy, it’s bustling, it’s always crowded during lunch and dinner time. Thankfully, there’s routine is in place for both the workers; shifts and breaks, and for the customers; order numbers, keeping the place efficient even during peak hours.

Sometimes though, technology fails and the digital counter stops, causing the workers to do everything manually.

Today just had to be one of those days. Today, when it’s a Saturday afternoon a week just before Christmas and most people are doing their last-minute shopping for presents to give people they don’t really care about but have an obligation to prepare a gift for.

The phone rings and Jaehyun hears it first, but he’s tied up with arranging receipts so he doesn’t go over immediately. Looking around, he tries to locate the Mark, the store’s part-timer who’s usually in charge of answering calls since he’s the one who does the deliveries or deal with the store pick-ups, but Mark is nowhere to be found.

Just then, Taeil, the store manager walks past but he makes no attempt at answering the phone, too engrossed in reading the paper in his hand.

Groaning, Jaehuyn stares at the stack of receipts in front of him in defeat. He’s almost done arranging them by number but the orders from the counter are still coming in. “Taeil!” he calls, hoping that the manager heard him. When Taeil turns to him, Jaehyun internally sighs in relief before jutting his chin at the phone. “Where’s Mark? It’s been ringing for a while now.”

“He’s giving out flyers.” Waving the stack of paper in his hand, Taeil explains, “Holiday coupons. I gave him a bunch of them so don’t expect him back so soon.” The phone stops ringing then, but Taeil’s still facing Jaehyun. “Pick it up if it rings again.”

As if on cue, the phone starts ringing and Taeil waves at Jaehyun before pointing at the phone.

Left with no choice, Jaehyun stops managing the receipts, finding a paper weight to make sure they don’t fly away. “One hundred and twenty-seven. One hundred and twenty-seven,” he repeats himself so that he doesn’t forget where he stopped. He walks over to the phone as Taeil goes back into his office.

Jaehyun picks up the phone and he suddenly realises that he’s never actually been the one answering it before. Mark’s always been around to handle it, except now. So he clears his throat to muster his best enthusiastic voice. He doesn’t like handling phone calls. They’re awkward at the very least and disastrous if Jaehyun tries harder. In Jaehyun’s opinion, they are, arguably worse than face-to-face conversations.

Besides, the only person in his phone’s call log is his mother.

“Hello! This is Pizza Lovers, how can I help you?” he greets cheerily, trying to remember how Mark usually sounds whenever he gets orders over the phone.

_“Hi, I’d like a regular Meat Lovers and I’ll pick it up at the store.”_

The person on the other line sounds simply lovely and Jaehyun’s breath catches in his throat as he thinks about what Mark usually says next.

_“Hello?”_

Regaining his senses, Jaehyun coughs, “Right. Sure.”

A chuckle comes over the line and Jaehyun feels like it might be the most melodic laughter he’s heard in his whole life.

_“Do I get an order or queue number to pick up the pizza or…?”_

“I just need your name and phone number.”

_“Kim Doyoung.”_

Jaehyun almost repeats the name, just to see how the name rolls of his tongue. It’s a pretty name for someone with such a pretty voice. He almost doesn’t hear the number because his mind is filled with Doyoung’s name. But he notes everything down eventually. “Got it,” he says as he writes the last number.

 _“Great!”_ Another laugh. _“I’ll see you later then!”_

“See you!” Jaehyun responds naturally. “Love you,” he adds, because the only person he ever talks to on the phone is his mother and that’s how he always ends his call. He realises it a second too late that it isn’t his mother that he’s talking to.

This is it. This is how Jaehyun is going to lose his job. Even if Taeil isn’t there to hear him harass a customer, there are cameras around that captured him harassing a customer (over the phone, but still). Or maybe he’s going to resign just because he’s so damn mortified that he just said the L-word to a total stranger who just wanted a regular size pizza with meat toppings. Jaehyun wants to quit his job, or end his life, whichever comes first. It’s the worst thing he’s ever done in his entire life and he doesn’t know how he can recover from it.

An apology is at the tip of his tongue when he hears those three words.

 _“Love you too.”_ A gasp. And then the line goes dead.

Jaehyun stares at the phone, wondering if that conversation just happened. He doesn’t get an answer, obviously, and he gets a shock when he suddenly hears Taeil’s voice - “What are you looking at?”, the store manager standing right beside him, looking intently at the phone as well.

“Nothing…” Jaehyun mumbles, puts the phone back down and rushes back to his receipts.

Now that Jaehyun’s looking at the receipts again, he tries pulling up the number he stopped at but it’s futile when he realises that the only thing currently in his mind isn’t the number. Isn’t even a number. It’s a name.

Kim Doyoung.

*

“You look like you want to end your life, Doyoung.”

“Taeyong,” Doyoung says through gritted teeth. “Did you not just hear what I said?”

“You told the pizza boy that you loved him too, so I’m assuming he said it first? You were just being polite.” Taeyong grins, wiggling his eyebrows in that annoying way he knows Doyoung hates. “Or maybe you do love him and his voice.”

Glaring at Taeyong, Doyoung snatches the former’s wallet from the table, ignoring his friend’s cry of protest. “I do not like his voice.”

Folding his arms, Taeyong leans back in his chair when he realises that it’s futile in trying to retrieve his wallet. “Says your idiotic grin when you heard him and how you pointed at your phone while you mouthed, ‘hot voice’, to me.”

Doyoung stays silent, considering Taeyong’s words for a moment, trying to recall if he really said that to his best friend. “That was a lapse in judgement.”

“Whatever. I want my pizza.” Taeyong points at his wallet in Doyoung’s clutches. “I’m paying for it.”

Scoffing, Doyoung waves Taeyong’s wallet as he stands up from his seat, ready to head to the store to pick up his order. “It’s still my pizza.”

“Send my regards, or my _love_ to the pizza boy too,” Taeyong says, blowing Doyoung a kiss and chuckling when Doyoung attempts to cross over to Taeyong’s side to strangle him but ends up knocking his hip at the side of the table instead.

*

“This is your fault,” Jaehyun tells Mark once the younger boy is back from distributing flyers. He stares at Jaehyun with wide eyes, utterly confused. As soon as he entered the backroom to take off the ridiculous apron that he had to wear to give out the flyers, he was ambushed by Jaehyun.

“What’s my fault?” Mark asks cautiously. His mind runs through the list of things he’s done all day and wonders which part of it went wrong.

“You were supposed to be back hours ago.” Not true but the guilty look on Mark’s face shows that he doesn’t know that. Because Jaehyun’s kind-of pissed off, extremely mortified, and outright panicking, he continues his lecture. “I’m not in charge of answering delivery phone calls. _You’re_ in charge of them.”

Mark whimpers at that, whispering a small, _sorry_ that Jaehyun barely catches.

“Why are you late?” Jaehyun presses. There’s no actual timing that Mark should be back at the store. But Mark’s a part-timer, a part-timer who’s been working for a long time and who should know that Taeil doesn’t care about the duration it takes to finish something as long as it gets done but he doesn’t know.

“There was this boy,” Mark begins and Jaehyun already feels empathetic. He knows all about boys (and telling them ‘I love you’ over the phone by accident. Having a nice voice was no excuse for Jaehyun to do it). “I was trying to finish giving out the flyers but he kept on talking to me.”

“And you were talking back to him, I assume?” Jaehyun muses, not unkindly but he sees the way Mark grows increasingly stressed out by the second.

Quickling shaking his head, Mark pulls off the apron before he steps closer to Jaehyun, almost grabbing his hands as he eagerly explains his situation. “It would have been rude to ignore him. But I wasn’t chatting the whole way, I swear. He turned up when I was almost done and then he couldn’t stop staring at me and I couldn’t stop staring at him too because _he_ couldn’t stop staring at me so we just stared at one another until he told me I was cute and I got so flustered that I dropped the remaining flyers in my hand. And he looked so fierce at first, it made me wonder if I shouldn’t have given him a flyer instead? But then he smiled and was so nice about everything and - ”

“Besides calling you cute?” Jaehyun interjects, thoroughly enjoying the story.

“ - besides calling me cute,” Mark affirms without realising what Jaehyun said and then his face pales and he’s shaking his head again. “I meant he helped me pick up the flyers even though he didn’t have to. So I thanked him, of course.”

“Of course.”

Nodding, Mark brightens when he feels that Jaehyun is finally understanding him. “So I thanked him but he didn’t hand me back the flyers and I was confused for a moment but I didn’t want to demand him for them because he helped me pick them up after all. Then he told me that I still had another stack in the pouch and I realised that I was nowhere near finishing. I really wanted to rush back in case you needed help but the boy started giving out the flyers _for me_ and there was no way I could leave him alone. So we ended up giving them out together.”

After hearing Mark’s story, Jaehyun’s annoyance starts to disappear. There’s no way he could continue blaming Mark after hearing all of that. More importantly, Jaehyun hadn’t even expected Mark to have such a detailed explanation of why he was ‘late’ and now he feels bad for putting the younger boy in a spot. “Did you get his name at least?”

At that, Mark beams, nodding enthusiastically. “Donghyuck!”

Jaehyun thinks about his own boy, _Kim Doyoung_ and realises that he still has to give the other his pizza in approximately ten minutes. He glances at Mark and wonders if he should send Mark to deal with Doyoung instead, but decides against it, knowing that he’s way too curious about the owner of the voice than to let this opportunity slide. Besides, he still had to apologise to the other for confessing out of the blue even though he didn’t mean it. Then he remembers how the conversation ended, _what_ Doyoung replied and Jaehyun wonders if the other is even going to bring it up.

“I’m not going to get into any trouble, right?” Mark looks at Jaehyun worriedly, his voice meek.

Smiling a little, Jaehyun pats Mark on the shoulder as he shakes his head and Mark lets out a sigh of relief.

“Great. Because I’ve never seen you so annoyed before. I honestly thought I did something wrong,” Mark admits and Jaehyun feels bad all over again.

Just then, the door to Taeil’s office opens and he stops when he sees Jaehyun’s hand on Mark’s shoulder. “He told a customer ‘I love you’ over the phone by accident,” Taeil informs the younger boy as he casually strolls past the pair.

Jaehyun’s about to ask Taeil _how in the world he knows about that_ when he hears the familiar ping of a new order coming in and he looks up to the digital counter to find it working again. When he looks at Taeil, all the store manager does is smile widely at the order numbers back on the screen and gives Jaehyun a thumbs-up.

Jaehyun hates those damn numbers.

“You - ” Mark begins but he stops as soon as Jaehyun raises his hand.

“Don’t even say anything.”

*

Waiting for Kim Doyoung to pick up his pizza is worse than going on a date, Jaehyun concludes as he stares at the clock for the sixteenth time in a minute. Every customer that approaches the counter sends him on high alert. So far, he’s been disappointed every single time he doesn’t hear the name he’s expecting.

When he sees the next person walking towards the counter, he doesn’t put his hopes up but he remains attentive all the same, especially when the newest customer looks so good in that white shirt and blue denim jacket.

“Hi,” the man says and Jaehyun instantly recognises his voice.

“Kim Doyoung?” Jaehyun blurts before he can stop himself and the other’s eyes widen in surprise as he slowly nods. On hindsight, Jaehyun realises how much of a creep he looks like.

A smile creeps onto Doyoung’s face as he looks down, away from Jaehyun’s eyes. “I’m here to pick up my pizza.”

Nodding, Jaehyun turns around and grabs the box that has been sitting on the counter. “Yes, I know.” He internally cringes at himself as soon as the words leave his mouth but he remains smiling when he hands the box over to Doyoung.

Shrugging off Jaehyun’s response with a fake laugh of his own, Doyoung graciously accepts the box but then he remembers something and knows that he shouldn’t, doesn’t have to, but he can’t stop himself from asking, “Do you need to confirm my phone number?”

Jaehyun spaces out as he looks at Doyoung and then rushes to pull out a slip of paper from his pocket. “Sure?” When Doyoung says the numbers, Jaehyun hardly pays attention, eyes staring intently at the paper. “Yep. You can…” he motions at the box. “Please enjoy your pizza.”

Swallowing, Doyoung nods. “I will…” he points at the box with his other hand. “Enjoy the pizza.”

There shouldn’t be anything else for Doyoung to say. He should be walking out of the store, and effectively out of Jaehyun’s sight so that Jaehyun can finally resign and wonder not confess to another customer ever again. But Doyoung remains in place, looking down at his shoes.

“I didn’t mean what I said,” Doyoung says suddenly, the same time Jaehyun starts apologising, “I’m sorry I said ‘I love you’.”

Doyoung snaps his mouth shut, allowing Jaehyun to continue but the other doesn’t say anything else. “This is…”

“Awkward?” Jaehyun fills in, quickly adding, “You just want your pizza, I know.”

“I do want my pizza.” Doyoung slowly lifts his head and when he meets Jaehyun’s eyes again, he smiles shyly. “Don’t worry about the confession. I’m sorry about what I said too. It was a reflex.”

“Mine was too.” When he sees Doyoung frown, he hurried explains himself, “I mean, I usually only talk to my mom on the phone and I always end the call with...that.”

Relief floods Doyoung’s face and he laughs at that. “Right! Of course, you do. I was wondering if you said ‘I love you’ to your customers over the phone all the time.”

“Only to you,” Jaehyun assures.

There’s a faint blush staining Doyoung’s cheeks and Jaehyun’s certain that his ears are well on their way to becoming the same shade. With Doyoung’s next words, Jaehyun knows for sure that he wouldn’t be able to stop his ears and neck from turning red. “Otherwise I’d have to worry about not being special to a cute boy like yourself.” Doyoung’s eyes flit to the crumpled piece of paper lying on the counter. “You can…” He taps the paper twice with his index finger and Jaehyun looks down at it. “Call me. If you want. You have my number.”

“I’ll call you,” Jaehyun says a little too quickly, making Doyoung laugh.

But it isn’t awkward anymore, not with the way Doyoung’s eyes linger on Jaehyun’s lips and then roam down his chest before he meets Jaehyun’s eyes again. “I’ll be waiting for it.” He picks up the pizza box and gives Jaehyun one last smile. “Thanks for the pizza.”

Jaehyun doesn’t know why but he ends up replying, “Thank you too.” His ears turn redder (if that’s possible) when he realises what he said. 

Before Jaehyun can create a dumb excuse for his reply, Doyoung tells him, “Just call me.” He picks up the pizza box and waves at Jaehyun over his shoulder as he walks out.

Even with Doyoung finally out of the store, Jaehyun finds himself rooted to the spot and he only snaps out of his senses when Taeil comes up from behind him, asking, “Did you confess again?”

Grinning, Jaehyun shakes his head, though he still blushes from Taeil’s words, reminding him of little accident. “No, but I got a date.”

Taeil matches the grin on Jaehyun’s face, giving the other a pat on the back. “Good for you. Now get back to work.”

Jaehyun stares at the line forming in the store and he rushes to open one of the cash registers, trying not to think about a certain boy as he works through the rest of his shift.

By the time he clocks out, it’s almost eight. He doesn’t bother putting his scarf on properly as he exits the mall, phone out in his hand, Doyoung’s number on display.

He doesn’t know what he’s feeling nervous about as he presses his phone to his ear.

 _“Hello, who’s this?”_ Doyoung says as soon as the line connects.

“It’s Jaehyun.”

There’s a bit of shuffling and Jaehyun distinctly hears a _shut up, Taeyong_ before Doyoung’s speaking into the mouthpiece again.

_“Jaehyun! Hi! I wasn’t expecting a call so soon.”_

“My shift just ended.”

 _“So why are you calling?”_ Doyoung asks and Jaehyun misses his teasing tone entirely and starts to wonder if he shouldn’t have called so soon. But Doyoung continues joking before Jaehyun says anything. _“Are you planning on confessing again?”_

Smiling, Jaehyun licks his bottom lip. “I was actually thinking of asking you out on a date first.”

Doyoung says, _yes_ too quickly and this time, it’s Jaehyun’s turn to laugh. And as he listens to Doyoung talk about how delicious the pizza is, he thinks that maybe telling a customer ‘I love you’ might not be the worst thing he’s done in life after all.

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/fullsunlet) (ineedsomejaedofriends)
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!


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